The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Energy metabolism and ATP production is closely linked to oxygen utilization, which is best illustrated when comparing the energy balances of aerobic and anaerobic glucose utilization. Under aerobic oxidative conditions, glucose is completely metabolized to CO2 and H2O, yielding 34 mol ATP/mol glucose, whereas under anaerobic, oxygen depleted conditions, glucose is incompletely metabolized to lactic acid yielding only 2 mol ATP/mol glucose.
Unfortunately, there are numerous conditions and circumstances under which organs and tissues can experience oxygen partial pressures that are less than ideal. Moreover, there are also various conditions and circumstances under which organs and tissues are not fully capable of utilizing oxygen, even when oxygen is present at relatively high partial pressure. Still further, reduced oxygen utilization may also reduce ATP production, potentially leading to loss in muscular strength, power output, and endurance. ATP production may also be impaired in various disorders and malnutritive states, again leading to a significant reduction of muscular strength, loss of proper function, and fatigue. To help improve oxygen utilization in an organism, supplemental oxygen can be provided via inhalation. However, such supplementation is often impractical.
In order to increase ATP levels, various nutritional supplements are known in the art that rely on creatine compounds. Creatine has been reported to be effective in stimulation of ATP generation due to its role in anaerobic production of ATP during short/intensive exertions via the creatine kinase system. For example, US 2013/0131175 and US 2013/0096193 teach use of such compositions, while more complex creatine compositions are reported in U.S. Pat. No. 8,252,309. However, such supplements often fail to produce the desired increase in ATP production, and particularly ATP production in muscle.
In other known approaches, precursors for ATP synthesis were reported to increase ATP as can be taken from EP 1745789. However, such strategy may not be fully successful as is discussed in J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2008; 5: 3 (Effects of a supplement designed to increase ATP levels on muscle strength, power output, and endurance) for a supplement where adenylpyro-phosphoric acid and calcium pyruvate were administered and where no differences were found in actual exercise parameters. To overcome potential issues with inefficient synthesis or uptake of precursors, ATP can be directly administered using enteric coating to a mammal as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,629,329. However, hydrolysis in the gut and extracellular space is likely to negate all of the purported benefits. Moreover, ATP is a charged compound at physiological pH and is as such unlikely to pass cell membranes in significant quantities to provide intracellular ATP.
In still another approach, as shown in WO 2012/016018, the water-extractable fraction of a complex fermentation product of various plant materials was reported to increase oxygen consumption rate and intracellular ATP production, while in another approach, certain silica hydride minerals were reported to indirectly increase ATP as described in US 2003/0190374. Such compositions may be effective to at least some degree, however, may be subject to stability issues or difficulties in sourcing raw materials.
Therefore, while numerous compositions and methods of increasing energy metabolism and ATP production are known in the art, all or almost all of them suffer from one or more disadvantages. Thus, there is still a need to provide improved compositions and methods for increasing energy metabolism and ATP production.